Tuesday, May 31, 2016

For my criticism to be
fair let me cut Baba some slack. This is perhaps the worst possible time to be Nigeria’s
President. Nigeria
is an oil economy. As a mono-economy therefore, our economy is in normal
circumstances bound to move in the direction of oil income. The nation’s income
from crude oil sales is at an all time low. The demand for the dollar at the
moment far outweighs the supply due to i) Fall in the proceeds from sales of
crude which is our primary source of forex, ii) Our non-oil exports being quite
too insignificant to fetch reasonable amount of forex iii) the fact that we
import majority of the oil we consume thereby having to part with our scarce dollar
reserves.

*Buhari

Also, change is a
gradual process. One year is too small to rate an administration that took over
from a party that had milked Nigeria
dry for a good part of 16 years! Kwarapshun is our ONLY hindrance to
development and Baba is ardently tackling it!

Enough of sounding like
one of this administration’s many spokespersons! Enough of these excuses!
This administration don fall my hand in many areas. Below is a countdown from
seven to one of the most disappointing aspects of the Buhari administration in
my opinion!

CAVEAT: Whatever has
happened after Buhari got elected doesn’t negate the fact that there was only
one right choice between Buhari and GEJ. Nigeria was nose-diving into a
seemingly bottomless chasm as a result of the ineptitude of the previous
governments. May be with that government still in power, Nigeria would have been auctioned to China by now!
Recent revelations have shown that it was that bad! The looting was
unprecedented as it has been for several years though.

7. Many pending
appointments –
The defence line that it takes time to find the right people is balderdash! You
have been trying to be president for more than ten years! Until recently, many
appointees of the previous government that were supposedly inept were still
running the show in various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of the
Federal government! Till now, many appointments have still not been made. This
has definitely affected administrative duties because these individuals already
know they would definitely be replaced. They are only not sure of when!

6. The
nefarious activities of “Fulani Herdsmen”
While I agree that there are some narratives to this imbroglio that are unknown
to many and hardly publicized by the press, the seemingly innocuous posture of
the C-in-C has been embarrassing. This dangerous phenomenon has the potential
to deteriorate into a huge scale war if not nipped in the bud. I still find it
hard to fathom out the reason little to no mention of it was made in the long
democracy day speech of the President! This is a disaster waiting to happen
that needs to be decisively tackled on a huge scale.

By Perry Brimah, Dr.The account of the massacre given by the governor
of Benue state was harrowing. The raiders came
in typical style and killed at will, men, women and children. They set fire to
homes and farms, burning flesh, wood and brick alike. This time it was Governor
Ortom's very own village. These terrorists do not discriminate one farming
village from the other. The same way they raid and set farming villages ablaze
in Borno is the same way they light them up and fill the paths with blood in
Benue, Enugu
and Ekiti.

*President Buhari

Their enemy is clear: the farmers and their farms.
A weeping governor Ortom narrated how they burned hectares of rice farms. It
does not take a rocket scientist to get what's happening here or what was
happening in Borno; with the insurgent and not political Boko Haram, that is.

Chief
of Internal Security, Buratai Agrees They Are Boko Haram

Dare I say, to our relief the Nigerian 'chief of
global security,' Lieutenant General T. Y. Buratai has finally admitted that
these men ravaging the middle belt and south of Nigeria are the same 'ol Boko
Haram. It took a lot of convincing for the man Buhari has put in charge of Nigeria's
internal security to admit this feature of the spread of terror that we have
long wailed about.

The target is the farmers. Dislodged from the
Sambisa forest, these enemies of farmers have spread wide in the hinterland and
gone deeper than before. They do not attack towns. They do not attack senators
and governors. Their enemy is the farmer. Their need can only be the land.

By Felix Kwaku-DuaThere is
no doubt the political temperature is gradually rising as the various political
parties in the country are gearing up for the upcoming general election
especially as we have some few months for Ghanaians to exercise their franchise
to elect who they deem fit to rule this sovereign country.

Worldwide, Ghana
is noted for being a peaceful country and the upcoming election is going to put
Ghana
to another test as it is another avenue for the good people of this country to
prove or justify what they are noted for.

For election to be peaceful, most depends on
electorates, staunch party sympathizers and other stakeholders.

But I think this leaves a lot of work on the political
parties, traditional authorities, religious leaders, security agencies and
other corporate organizations who can also in their small aid in preaching
peace ahead of election 2016.

The aforementioned stakeholders must work
assiduously by having discussions on issues of peace and political tolerance as
we have some few months to go to the polls.

The king of the Asante kingdom, Otumfuor Osei Tutti
II as part of his efforts to lower the political temperature ahead of the 2016
general elections, has decided to engage all the flag bearers of the various
political parties for a golf match. This is a step in the right direction. It
is the hope of the monarch that playing a game among themselves will send the
right signal to their followers and also will make them see themselves as team
players working for mother Ghana
rather than rivals.

The popular warning for men to ‘make hay while the sun shines’
would only be considered reasonable and rational when there’s still hay left in
the bushes and every arena where it is usually found. Of course, you can only
be conscientised to grab something on time when the stuff in question is still
available.

Over the
years, several communities across the federation had been subjected to untold
hardship and seeming perpetual torture by Fulani herdsmen. I can’t forget in a
hurry that virtually all the states in Nigeria, particularly those in the
Southern region, have tasted a bit of this conundrum at one time or another.
The aforesaid set of farmers, rather than concentrating on grazing towards
breeding their livestock, end up constituting nuisance in their various host
communities, in the name of ‘revenge’ or what have you.

This
domineering and nonchalant idiosyncrasy of these armed herdsmen who parade
themselves with unspeakable ammunition was arguably overlooked by the
government and other concerned authorities, not until they recently unleashed
an astonishing terror on the people of Nimbo Community in Uzo-Uwani Local
Government Area of Enugu State; an attack that left in its trail tears and
blood. In the crisis, which occurred on Monday, April 25, 2016, scores were
found dead, countless persons maimed, about a hundred residents injured,
several houses and churches razed, thereby rendering over 2,000 dwellers
homeless.

The
incident might have come and gone, it is imperative to acknowledge that the
peril it inflicted on the living victims is unarguably an experience they will
all live to recall. Each time I recollect that a certain community in Enugu
State sometime in the history of this country woke one morning only to be
brutally taken unawares by a group of total strangers, I invariably take solace
in the ‘notion’ that it could be a mere dream.

Obviously, the deed has already been done. Instead of indulging in
retrogressive discourse or debate, the most logical and viable thing to do at
this point is to concentrate on the way forward. In a situation like this,
having taken a formidable step towards checking recurrence, the next most
reasonable action to take is to harmonise the atmosphere or the ties binding
the affected persons or groups.

Voting
on March 28, 2015 for the then presidential candidate of the All Progressives
Congress (APC), Muhammadu Buhari, was almost a badge of honour.

At
polling booths, voters proudly flaunted their thump-printed ballot papers to
prove that they were worthy ambassadors of the “change movement”.

Today,
perhaps, the real measure of how much things have changed is that many people
no longer readily own up to being part of the historic movement that led to the
sacking of a sitting Nigerian president.

*Buhari

Nobody admits voting
for change any more. In fact, to accuse anyone of voting for Buhari has become
an offence that people don’t take kindly. How
could I have voted for Buhari, God forbid, is the most popular refrain in
town today. And you wonder who did.

Well, I did. I am one of those who voted for the Daura-born General last year.
I have said so here, severally.

I thought that former
President Goodluck Jonathan had no capacity to continue to rule this country.
He was not in control of his government and another four years with him in the
saddle was, for me, unimaginable. And I still believe so.

I also thought Buhari
would make a better president not necessarily because he possessed the
intellectual capacity to govern. No.
But I reasoned that unlike Jonathan, he had the requisite character and
integrity to be in charge of his government and if he was, what he only needed
to do was to gather people with the capacity to drive a 21st century economy in
dire need of a shot in the arm.

Sadly, knowing what I
know now and having observed happenings in the polity in the last one year, I
no longer believe so.

If the election was to
be conducted today with Jonathan and Buhari as the frontline presidential
candidates as was the situation last year, I would rather not go near any
polling booth because, for me, the difference between the two is the same
between six and half a dozen.

Jonathan as president was clueless as charged. Buhari is not proving to be any different.

Today, May 29, 2016, is exactly one year since he was sworn in as president and commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.Expectations were quite high when he took his oath of office, vowing to give Nigerians a new lease of life. But, 365 days down the road, Nigerians are aghast.

Gov. Ayodele Fayose has emerged as the
Champion of the Nigerian people. He is the knight in shining armor who has
ridden forth to challenge the organized crime syndicate that goes by the name
MACBAN: the criminal organization that has been making human sacrifices to the
Caliphate’s Cattle.

A battle royal is about to begin. Every
Nigerian has to choose a side: The Caliphate’s
or Fayose’s.

Every lackey of the Caliphate can be
expected to line up behind MACBAN.

But every Nigerian who is concerned about
the safety of his farm, home, people or person; and who wants protection from
the marauding Fulani herdsmen and Fulani Militia, now knows what to do about
that menace: rally behind Faoyse and demand that the governor of your state should
act like Gov. Fayose and ban all cattle movement in your state and back it by
state legislation. You should hold rallies, pass resolutions, publish petitions
calling on your state Gov. to do like Fayose. Let the voices of the people ring
out loud and clear throughout the land. Fayose is our hero. Our national
leader. The leader of our movement to resist the Caliphate and its criminal
MACBAN ritual of human sacrifice!

Two things leap disa­greeably out of Presi­dent Muhammadu Buhari’s
first-year-in-office anniversary speech of May 29, 2016. In the broadcast’s
2624 words, not once did he mention the words Fulani herdsmen, let alone
address the real and pre­sent danger they constitute to Nigeria’s
continued existence as one political entity. Was this unfortunate omission
because he is himself of the Fulani eth­nic group? Or was it because he
considers a final stop to have been put to the herdsmen’s mur­derous rampaging
throughout the country? Or is it because the destructive army is a law unto
itself, above censure and sanc­tion?

*President Buhari

And this: “We are fully aware
that those vested interests who have held Nigeria back for so long will not
give up without a fight. They will sow divisions, sponsor vile press criticisms
at home and abroad, incite the public in an effort to create chaos rather than
relinquish the vice-like grip they have held on Nigeria.” In rendering the
above two sentences in the present continuous tense, wasn’t Presi­dent Buhari
suggesting his gov­ernment’s lack of total control, much in the manner of a mon­arch
unable to hold his goblet?

Sidelining the connotative meaning of these sentences as down to
clumsiness by presi­dential speechwriters, and also not minding the grammati­cal
mistakes in the speech, a fundamental worry is evident. Consider this: “They will sow divisions, sponsor vile press
crit­icisms at home and abroad, in­cite the public in an effort to cre­ate
chaos…” If you interpreted this official attribution of trea­sonous quality
to a robust media as the first decisive step to the systematic emasculation of pub­lic
opinion, your apprehension would sit on a solid foundation. Is it not often
said that truth – read an unfettered media – is in­variably the first casualty
in any dispensation’s charted course to a repressive bastion? Suddenly, a
government that rode straight to power on the wings of the re­lentless and
remorseless media battering and badgering of the Jonathan administration is
talk­ing about a “vile press”!

The “vile press” must, of course, have no future in this democratic
march, must not fea­ture in the dynamics of change. So, let’s take a more
detailed look at the President’s broadcast, em­ploying the instrument of con­tent
analysis. “By age, instinct and
experience, my preference is to look forward, to prepare for the challenges
that lie ahead and rededicate the administration to the task of fixing
Nigeria,” said Buhari. Yet, about half the speech was on the past, rather
than an expatiating on the “tri­umph”, “consolidation”, and “achievements!” he
vaunted. He moaned about Boko Haram’s devastations. He moaned about the
collapse in oil prices. He moaned about decayed infra­structures. He moaned
about the preceding government that did not live up to expectation. You would
expect the elaborate exercise in threnody to be fol­lowed by his administration’s
rectifying “achievements!” That turned out to be a fatuous dream.

The story
is not one of an earthquake proportion but it seems to cause some excitement in
high and low places. And what is the story? That former President Goodluck
Jonathan is on exile in the Ivory
Coast. He has countered the story sharply
and angrily. “I am not on exile. I have
no cause to go on exile. It is a wicked and malicious report. I was Vice
President for two years and President for six years. I did everything I could
and I served my country very well. This is what they keep saying any time I am
outside the country. I was in Ecuador.
They said I was on exile. This is my second time in Cote
d’ Ivoire and I am rounding up my visit. It is a wicked attempt to link me with
the renewed Niger
Delta crisis.”

*Ray Ekpu(pix:vanguard)

Let’s
connect the dots. There is a crisis in the Niger Delta. Pipelines are being
broken by militants who seem to have issues with the President Buhari
administration. Jonathan is from Bayelsa, a major theatre of this crisis. Some
of Jonathan’s former executives have been pulled in by the EFCC on allegations
of corruption: Badeh, Diezani Allison-Madueke, Sambo Dasuki, Femi Fani-Kayode,
etc. Could it be that the militants think the government is trying to get their
man? Does the government think these militants are sponsored by Jonathan to
destabilise the government or to prevent the government from getting him if
indeed they think he has some explaining to do about how he ran the country?

Jonathan has
given himself a brilliant self-assessment. The report card issued by him on him
reads A plus. That is reflected in his statement: “I served my country very well.”
But does the EFCC think so? The Nation newspaper quotes an unnamed
EFCC source as saying that although “Jonathan
has been implicated in all transactions under its investigation the
ex-President was not yet its target.” The “yet” in that sentence is very
important, isn’t it?

The truth
of the matter is that going by what has been revealed in court so far Jonathan
must have made some questionable approvals. But no corruption has been directly
traced to him so far. If Jonathan is “implicated in all transactions” so far
investigated as the EFCC claims why is he not yet its target? Is it hoping to get
more worms crawling out of the can? Or is it waiting for orders from “oga at
the top?” or is it gauging the temperature of the Niger Delta or of the country
to be able to determine whether or not to go for the big fish?

Let me give
you a parable. In 1983, Dele Giwa was the editor of the Sunday Concord and I the
Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Concord
group of newspapers. Dele was arrested by Sunday Adewusi’s policemen for
publishing “classified government
information.” I was arrested for an article titled “Sodom
and Gomorrah”
in which I alerted the public about the tactics of corrupt people: whenever
there was fraud they would set the place on fire to obliterate the evidence.
There was a huge fraud at the Nigerian External Telecommunications and I warned
the government to keep watch lest the arsonists destroy the documents. The
place was set on fire the day after my article was published. One person died
in the incident. I was charged with murder, the press dubbed it “murder by
pen.”

Dele and I
were detained at Ikoyi Prison. Chief Moshood Abiola, the proprietor of Concord was
a member of the National Party of Nigeria, NPN. He had stormed out of the party
when he was schemed out of the presidential race. So the relationship between
Abiola and the government was mortuary-cold. Our arrest and detention were seen
by Abiola as an attempt to get at him. When he came to visit us at Ikoyi prison
he gave us the parable of the ant and a cube of sugar. He said that the reason
ants are only able to nibble at a cube of sugar is that they can’t carry it
away. They would like to swallow the entire cube of sugar but since they can’t
they just nibble at it. He told us he is the real target, the cube of sugar.
Before he left the prison he pushed a wad of naira notes into the hands of the
warder and told him “please give them whatever they want.” When Abiola left,
the warder asked us what we wanted. We both said “cognac.” He brought it at
three times the market cost. Cognac
is a luxury drink. In prison it is a super luxury drink.

Monday, May 30, 2016

By Reno
Omokri

On January 22, 2016, I tweeted
a joke which went viral. I had said that at meetings of the Federal Executive
Council, the minister of information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, would address
members and say 'turn to your neighbour and say, neighbour have you blamed
Jonathan today'!Yes, it was a joke, but like most good jokes, it had and still
has a basis in reality!

The President and his ministers appear ill prepared for office and the evidence
of this is their inability to take responsibility for the situation of things
in Nigeria.

*Buhari

Was it not John Burroughs who said "a man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else"?

Those words should be embossed on a plaque and placed in a very prominent location at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa.

Seeing this admonition weekly may help members of the Federal Executive Council take responsibility and stop acting the victim.

For example, Nigerians were shocked when the minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said in December of 2015 that the Jonathan administration, which had left office six months ago, was responsible for the biting fuel scarcity the nation was and still is grappling with.

That statement by Mr. Lai Mohammed is a classic case of psychological projection (a psychological disorder characterized by a patient defending himself against his own unpleasant realities by denying the existence of the reality while at the same time blaming another for it).

And it gets worse. It is bad enough that this administration refuses to take responsibility for its own failures, it also wants to take credit for the success of others.

In a treatise bothering on megalomania, the publicity and communications team of President Buhari's office claimed the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (AKA TSA) as the major achievement of the first 365 days of the Buhari administration.

But for a government that prides itself on anti-corruption, that statement, fraudulent as it is, is dishonest and 'fantastically corrupt'!

First of all, the Treasury Single Account WAS NOT an idea of the Buhari administration and secondly the present government DID NOT initiate its implementation.

The TSA was conceived by the Jonathan administration and there was to be a staggered implementation because from an expert point of view, it was thought that if all Federal Government funds were suddenly pulled out of the commercial banking sector in one fell swoop, the shock on that sector would be so immense that it would trigger job losses and perhaps bank failures. It was thought that a gradual implementation would allow banks recover such that the baby would not be thrown out with the bath water.

Iwas
delighted to visit Nigeria
again, the second time in under a year, to meet with President Buhari and
attend the second Regional Security Summit. Combating violent extremism is a
global chal­lenge, which has affected many of our countries in Europe, just as
you are tackling it here in Nigeria.
That is why I welcomed President Buhari’s call to hold this important summit.

The UK and Nigeria have a strong and
long-standing relationship. President Buhari’s recent visit to the UK for London’s
Anti-Corruption Summit underlines the importance of our partner­ship. The UK stands shoulder to shoulder with Ni­geria as it
tackles corruption, something President Buhari himself has said has become a
‘way of life’.

During
my visit, I was struck by how much progress had been made on President Buhari’s
manifesto since I was last here for the President’s inauguration. In
particular, significant improve­ments in security stood out.

Over
the last 12 months, action by Nigeria
and its neighbours, with the support of friends in the international community,
has greatly diminished Boko Haram. We have reduced their strength and the
territory they control. I congratulate President Buhari and other leaders in
the region on this prog­ress.

On Thursday, May 19, 2016, it was 20 years when my article
(satire) of the above title was published in major Nigerian newspapers – for
ease of reference, theSunday Times issue of May 19, 1996. I wrote the
satire in the heady days ofNigeria’s military dictator, the late General Sani
Abacha, whose regime tortured Nigerians most, and the motivation for the
article was the ravaging Mad Cow Disease Bovine Spongriform Encephalopathy
(BSE) of that time. In the article, I wrote, inter alia,“Oftentimes,
during the long treks in search of food, our cows act as ‘mediators’ between
their dagger-wielding owners and landowners / farmers when they get mad at each
other over grazing rights. Roles reversal you will say”.

Could
anyone ever imagine cows ‘mediating’ between their owners andlandowners/farmers over
grazing rights in Nigeria?
But that was my statement even though on allegory, 20 years ago. Today, Nigeria is in
the precipice of cows mediating between their owners and landowners/farmers, if
great care and diplomacy, are not urgently taken.

The raging national
controversy over the speculated Federal Government’s proposed N940 million
grazing reserves for Fulani herdsmen especially in Southern Nigeria, and
attendant protests against the plan, coupled with the reported atrocities of
herdsmen across the land, spurred my reach for my said article. One of the aims
of the recall is to draw public / government attention again to what I said in
1996. It is not a joking matter, as they say.

I wish to lend my voice
to the ongoing reasoned calls/advice that negotiations, rather than government
fiat/sentiments, are the better options in the pros and cons for ranches,
grazing rights, path ways, etc to avoid an unnecessary chaos, bloodletting and
what have you. As a saying goes, sense and sensibilities are quite often
embedded in jokes/banters.

Following is my 1996 article (excerpts). Please ponder on
it.

“What lessons can human beings learn from animals?” I
asked. How naïve I was! Scientists have since proved that animal share basic
instincts with man. They also feel, communicate and react. Nigerian herdsmen
have authenticated this scientific theory on animal communication, as they
(herdsmen) talk to, and receive responses from their cows and goats.

“Recently, I overhead some Nigerian cows discussing the
raving malady afflicting their British counterparts, the Bovine Spongiform
Encephalopathy (BSE), otherwise called the mad cow disease. The submission of
our local breed was that British cows, having been part of the revolution on
the “Animal Farm”, had become over-pampered along with their fellow co-plotters
such as dogs, cats, horses, pigs, birds, etc.

“Our cows are of the opinion that since animals in foreign
lands are treated like gods, live in palaces, fly first class, ride in
limousines, attend balls, inherit fortunes and get state burials, madness
cannot but creep in.

Northern elders and
the elite class have been quite vocal in the last couple of years, giving a
louder voice to national issues, particularly that which affects their region.
However, the sad reality is that they have focused on issues that massage
the ego of the elite class and deepen the pockets of a selected few turning a
blind eye on the more threatening issues eating up the region.

President Buhari and VP Osinbajo

The dominant lexicon, Revenue allocation, as to who gets a better share
from the national purse seems to take a sizable share of their mind thereby
ignoring the bigger elephant in the room. If increase in allocation translates
to better distribution of wealth across the social strata and an improved
living standard of the average northerner, then they stand on holy ground but
the evidence proves otherwise. The lack of regional purpose, poorly articulated
vision, an incoherent strategy and a continuous mismanagement of resources is
the cradle upon which the parlous situation of today’s north was bred.

The huge textile industries inKanoandKadunathat employed thousands of young
northerners gradually slid into extinction without any of our leaders
attempting to thrown in a rescue rope. There is no doubt that the north is home
to the richest man in Africa and a couple of other billionaires, what logical
explanation could one then give to the widespread poverty of the larger
populace rather than the earlier assertion on the north’s focus on building
strong individuals at the expense of stronger communities.

It is this widening gap between the rich and poor that has
gradually metamorphosed to the insecurity we are experiencing today. How could
we not have known that economic repression breeds strife and contempt. The
north is today making the headline for all the wrong things. The challenges in
the north and its opportunities are tied to a single yet critical word,
Education. It is the level of awareness of a people, their skills and cerebral
sophistication that determine the kind of community they build. There is a
strong relationship between education and economic prosperity. WhenEgyptbecame the centre for global
education, she consequently became an economic world power.

This trend extended toGreece,Rome,Britainand today theUnited Stateswhere seven of the top ten
universities in the world are resident. The north accounts for the highest rate
of illiteracy in the country, way below the national average and worst
ratios for girl child education in the country. The national demographic
and health survey puts the illiteracy rate for women at 21% in thenorth westcompare to a national rate of 50%, the
10 states with the highest number of girls out of secondary school are also
found in the north.

Saturday, May 28, 2016

President Muhammadu
Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) will, on Sunday, mark his one
year in office. Expectedly, the occasion will give the president an opportunity
to reflect on how he has governed Nigerians in the past one year. These are some
of the questions that Buhari should address his mind to: Are Nigerians now
better off than they were before the inception of the change government? Is the
economy now better managed than previously?
Has power supply improved more than before? Are Nigerians more secure now than
before? Are Nigerians more united than before? Has one naira exchanged to one
US dollar as promised. Has the government paid its promised N5000 stipend to
unemployed Nigerians?

*President Buhari

Has the government
created the jobs it promised in its one year in office? Has the government
defeated the Boko Haram sect and rescued the Chibok girls as boasted? Has the
government fought corruption to a standstill? I think that most Nigerians will
not answer these questions in the affirmative.

Under the change
regime, the economy is on its knees begging to be resuscitated. The naira has
been badly battered and bruised that it recently exchanged for N360 to the
dollar at parallel market. The Tiger Head brand of battery I used to buy at N50
a pair before change came has climbed to N60, N70, N80, N100 and N120 in the
one year of change administration.

This analogy will
give you an idea of what has happened to the price of rice, yam, garri, beans,
meat and tomato in the past one year. Pure water that sells for N5 a sachet
before, now sells for N10. We are indeed in a period of economic recession. The
inflation rate has hit all time high at 13.7%. Unemployment is also at its peak
of 12.1% yet the government is foot-dragging on recruitment of 500,000 teachers
and 10,000 policemen it promised Nigerians. The worst of change to Nigerians is
the unofficial removal of petrol subsidy and hiking of fuel pump price to N145
from N86.5 without providing palliatives.

Yet, many Nigerians
are buying the commodity at between N150 and N165 in Lagos. It is sold higher prices in other
parts of the country outside Lagos and Abuja. This is what APC
government called deregulation of the petroleum sector yet the commodity is
still scarce.
Upon all the pains inflicted on Nigerians by the change government, the
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, rubbed additional salt to
the injury when he said that the government hiked the fuel price simply because
Nigeria
is broke.

The minister should
better tell that to the marines for Nigerians are not dumb to swallow that
disingenuous piece of propaganda line, hook and sinker. The minister should
understand that Nigerians are wiser now than before. The cheap propaganda
dished to Nigerians prior to the 2015 general polls is a hard sale now.

Nigerians now take
his “Nigeria is
broke” slip with a pinch of salt. What the economic scenario has shown
is that Buhari has no handle on the economy. His economic team, if any, is
sleeping and snoring while the economy is fumbling and wobbling and would soon
grind to a disastrous halt if nothing urgently is done to salvage it.

Tying the naira to Chinese Yuan cannot save it. It is like jumping from frying
pan to fire. No foreigner, whether European or Asian, will develop this country
for us. The earlier this government realizes it the better for it and
Nigerians. The government should think out of the box.

No doubt, this is a very tough and challenging period for
many Nigerians. The past one year under this APC led government in Nigeria has
been dotted with lamentations, gnashing of teeth, full of disappointments,
unimaginable hardship, dashing of hopes and complete reversal of promises.
Certainly, the present despicable and lamentable situation in the country was
the least thing Nigerians particularly those brainwashed 15 million Voters who
voted for President Buhari bargained for. Even though I can raise my head high
and say that I was not among those bunch of ignoramus voters who were deceived
into believing that President Muhammadu Buhari has the capacity to turn
stone into bread as I never fell for those white lies that the party gushed out
to Nigerians.

However, much as I had expressed skepticism and have continued to be skeptical as to the party’s genuine capacity to lead the country to a safer shore but what actually baffled and keep surprising me is the level at which the party is struggling desperately to use the same lies or peddling of falsehood they used to get to power to also remain in power. Or could this be the reason why there is this maxim that one needs another lie to sustain one lie?

Perhaps, unknown to them that there is this popular saying
that ‘you can deceive some people some of the times but you obviously cannot
deceive all the people all the times’. When in 2014/2015 the APC members and
leaders were aggressively seeking to supplant former President Goodluck
Jonathan and his party- the PDP accusing the former President and PDP members
of being clueless, incompetent, weak and corrupt among other spurious
accusations, very few discerning and informed minds knew then that APC as a
party and its leaders were playing on the intelligence and psych of some
vulnerable Nigerians. They promised to make light to shine across the country,
water to run on dried taps, three millions of jobs to be provided yearly, 25
million unemployed Youths to receive five thousand naira stipends yearly, NYSC
members to have their alowee increased, one dollar to equal to one naira,
Chibok girls to be rescued within six months including the automatic stoppage
of Boko Haram madness within six months.

They also mesmerized us with the sweet promises that pump
price of fuel would be reduced to N40 per litre, that Nigerian school Children
would start enjoying one free meal every school day, that workers and
pensioners would receive their pay on or before 25thof every Month and above all, that the
cankerworm called Corruption would be fought to a standstill among other
promises.

General Muhammadu Buhari who later got ‘baptized’ by
charging to President Buhari was so much repackaged to the point that the dummy
was sold to Nigerians that the Daura born former Army general was the only
clean and incorruptible Nigerian existing. They told us he was the ‘Messiah’ to
come and the only one that has the panacea to our economic cum political
travails in this country. We were told that even as a former military head of
state, he had no other house anywhere in the world except the moderate bungalow
in his village. They said Buhari has the magic wand to exterminate corruption
in Nigeria.
Funny enough, we were meant to believe that the only reason why there is huge
unemployment, epileptic power supply, continued abduction none release of
Chibok girls, hardship and other crimes was because Buhari was not the
President. In all, they said Nigeria
only needs a specie of a man in the image and likeness of Buhari and things
would start working again. Surprisingly, some people believed this cart while
there were few discerning minds like yours sincerely who took the entire gambit
with a pinch of salt and dismissed the whole lies as balderdash.

Now, the Chicken has come home to roast. The breeze has blown
and Nigerians have seen the Buttocks of a foul. One year is gone and yet there
is nothing to show that we are heading to the world of Eldorado. On the
contrary, Nigerians are getting the direct opposite of all that were promised.
Instead of employing 3 million Youths as promised, there has been millions of
job lost. Instead of improving on the five thousand mega watts of electricity
that the previous administration of Jonathan left it, there has been a decline
in electricity generation that it now hovers around I,450 mega watts of
electricity with its attendant blackout across the country even when there is a
hike of about 45% of electricity tariff. Instead of buying fuel at least at
N86.50 that the last administration bequeathed with the availability of the
product, we are now faced with an astronomical increase of N145 per litre and
scarcity of the products. Instead of enjoying a downward slope Change in the
prices of food stuffs and transportation, Nigerians are faced with an upward
arbitrary change in the prices of food Stuffs and transportation. Instead of
finding life easier and reassuring, hardship, hunger and penury are today
common realities in the country under APC led federal government.

Friday, May 27, 2016

In two days time,
precisely May 29, the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration of
President Mohammadu Buhari would be a year old in office. Being the tradition
in this clime, it’s a time to take stock, to find out how the administration
has fared in the last one year. Has the administration been able to meet the
hopes and expectation of Nigerians who denied the Peoples Democratic Party
that continued hold on power and placed their hopes on the APC and General
Buhari.

*President Buhari

That Nigerians had
a lot riding on this administration was not in doubt and they had justifiable
reason for that. APC had promised them what they felt they were not getting
from the PDP government. A new life, a new Nigeria where fuel prices would be
about N40 a litre. Where the mass of the unemployed and the aged would be paid
a certain amount of money every month and school children fed at least
once a day. It was an administration that fed on the hope and the desire of the
people with a promise to ensure that the hopes and aspirations were met. And
the Buhari administration made history, unseating a sitting government.
President Buhari’s victory at the polls marked him as a dogged, consistent
fighter.

He had contested
for the highest office in the land on three different occasions before victory
eventually came. That in itself is historical. I can’t recall any serious
Nigerian politician being that dogged. His tenacity endeared him to many
Nigerians, his victory was thus assured especially when Nigerians had grown
disenchanted with the PDP government . His victory also signaled the end of the
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) dominance of the political landscape. Recall
that the party had boasted, in its heydays that it would rule Nigeria for 60
years. It could only rule for 16 years, losing to the progressive elements
which in itself is equally historical.

Incumbents, with so
much at stake, hardly lose election while the conservative elements have always
aligned to hold the mantle of leadership of this country. It was under this
epoch that President Buhari became the president, a feat that had proved
impossible until a merger of his Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) with the
Action Congress of Nigeria and a faction of the All Progressive Grand Alliance
(APGA) spearheaded by the Imo state governor, Rochas Okorocha. The rest is
history, as it is usually said.

Children Day, first proclaimed by the World Conference for the
Wellbeing of Children in 1925 and then established universally in 1954, is
celebrated each year to promote international togetherness, awareness among
children worldwide, and improving children’s welfare. International Children’s
Day has also been set aside by the United Nations to celebrate and honour
children across the world every May 27. (Today is one of such remarkable days).

It is recognised and celebrated on various days in many countries around the
world. The day was created as part of efforts of the UN to protect children
from dangerous situations in the society and as well to give every child the
opportunity to acquire formal education. Significantly, it was set aside to
highlight the dignity of children and their need for love, care and respect,
and to also instill in them a sense of patriotism and national pride.

(Regrettably),
the Nigerian child is an endangered species. She or he usually bears the impact
of poverty, family problems, peer pressure, failed educational system, social
and religious conflicts as well as violence and terrorism. At an early age,
some children are given in marriage, thereby exposing them to sexually
transmitted diseases and infections, many have been conscripted into foot
soldiers, are victims of sexual slavery and all sorts of emotional torture.

Child
abuse, child trafficking, child battery and exploitation are common realities
in our society. It is sad that despite the information age, some cultures and
practices in our country still make children vulnerable, disadvantaged and
prone to abuse. Under-aged marriage is the norm in the North and child labour
is not peculiar to the South alone.

Many
of our children grow with bitterness for their country. Having watched the
insincerity of the government to the plight of the child in comparison to the
news of child bravery in other climes, many would prefer to stay away and
fulfill their potentials in a clime that encourages them to do so. The tale of
the Chibok girls, the kidnap of students of Barbington Macaulay Junior Seminary
in Lagos and
the plight of Ese Oruru are miniature compared to the many cases of child abuse
and neglect in the Nigerian society.

As
we were saying, can a sane person allow him­self to be driven by some spurious
emotion to run stark-naked into a crowded market for whatever reason? The moral
implication of the story is obvi­ous. It shows that it is the soci­ety that
creates its madmen that also treats its madmen shabbily as though they were not
human beings. If, indeed, we are at first comfortable with the way the first
madman who opens the story is ill-treated, by the time the story closes, and we
are fa­miliar with the fate of Nwibe, we certainly can no longer be complacent
about the treatment of the madman. What is more, we are awed by the realization
that Nwibe’s troubles have only begun by the time the story ends. The alternate
implication is that Nwibe might in the end become truly mad. This situa­tion
certainly urges us to the be­lief that the madman who opens the story might
have become a madman through an experience similar to that of Nwibe. This is a
devastating indictment of so­ciety.

*Nnamdi Kanu

This
indictment is addressed not only to the stone-aged so­ciety ridden with
superstitions and taboos such as Nwibe’s, but also the modern society because
Nwibe’s village is in the end only a microcosm of the larger human society. The
extreme vulnerability of the individual within the society is the major concern
of Achebe in this epic. Man is revealed to be ultimately alone and alienated in
society which is supposed to exist for his advantage but which ironi­cally
seems to exist to destroy him. Despite the solicitude of relatives, the
existential tragedy of Nwibe is his loneliness in the face of a horrendous
natural ca­lamity.

Consistent
with the system of ironies in this story, water which is a universal symbol of
life becomes the source of human tragedy. It is the local stream which invites
Nwibe to cleanse and purify himself from dirt that has also invited the madman
to quench his thirst and rejuvenate his tired body. Yet these invitations lead
inevitably to a tragic collision. Similarly ironic is the fact that the road,
which is the universal symbol of life and irrepressible human quest for
knowledge, is also that which has tragically crossed the paths of Nwibe and the
madman. The irony fur­ther extends to the name of the protagonist himself-
“Nwibe”, which translates from Igbo into “a child of the community”.

Such
a child is supposed to be loved, respected and helped along by all to achieve
his life’s goals. The opposite is ironically the case with the Nwibe of this
story. The community as dem­onstrated in the upper class of society- the Ozo
title holders and the medicine men- prides itself in its realism, good sense
and wisdom. However, when these claims are put to test, the society is not only
found want­ing, but is discovered to be in­capable of distinguishing ap­pearance
from reality. Hence, the community rather than be­coming the making, is the
ruin of this Nwibe.

One of the major news items in circulation has been the scarcity
of tomato. Incidentally, Nigeria is (was) the 14th largest producer of tomato
in the world and the second largest producer in Africa, after Egypt, but our
country hardly produces enough to meet the local demand of about 2.3 million
tonnes, and lacks the capacity to ensure an effective storage or value chain
processing of what is produced. Out of the 1.8 million tonnes that the country
produces annually, 900, 000 tonnes are left to rot and waste. Meanwhile,
tomato-processing companies in the country operate below capacity and many of
them have had to shut down.

(pix:wealthresult)

The
CEO of Erisco Foods, Lagos,
Eric Umeofia laments that tomato processing companies lack access to foreign
exchange to enable them buy heat-resistant seedlings and other tools that would
help ensure the country’s sufficiency in local production of tomato paste.
Similarly, Dangote Tomato Factory recently suspended operations due to the
scarcity of tomatoes and the assault on its tomato farms by a tomato leaves
destroying moth, known as “tuta absoluta” – a South American native, also known
as the Tomato Ebola, because of its Ebola-like characteristics.

Other
reasons have been advanced for the scarcity of tomatoes in our markets: the
fuel crisis which has driven up costs making it difficult and expensive for
Northern tomato farmers to bring tomatoes to the South, insurgency in the North
East which has resulted in the closure of many tomato farms in that region,
thus cutting off national output, the recent ethnic crisis in Mile 2, during
which Hausa-Fulani traders and other marketers engaged in a murderous brawl,
climate-change induced drought and heat wave in the Northern-tomato producing
states of Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Plateau, Kano and Gombe. In the best
of seasons, Nigeria
spends $1.5 billion annually on the importation of tomato products. The cost in
this regard, seems certain to rise.

Already,
the effect of this tomato blight is being felt in households. Whereas a few
months ago, a basket of tomato was about N5, 000, it is now about N40, 000 per
basket. Housewives are protesting bitterly about how a piece of tomato
vegetable has jumped up by about 650%, such that three pieces now go for as
much as N500. Tomato in Nigeria
today is thus more expensive than a litre of petrol! I have it on good
authority, that in those face-me-I-face-you quarters where the poor live, it
has in fact become risky to leave a tin of tomato paste carelessly or fresh
tomatoes lying around: they would most certainly be stolen, and there have been
reports of soup pots suddenly vanishing should the owner take a minute from the
communal kitchen to use the loo. Many are resorting to desperate measures to
sort out a growing epidemic of empty stomachs and empty pockets. Unless this
matter is addressed seriously and urgently, the social crisis may be far too
costly in both the short and the long run: hungry people could become sick and
angry, hungry citizens could become thieves and a nuisance, they could also
become angry voters and a rebellious populace.